


The Games We Play

by Ksue



Series: High Class [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 08:18:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6231175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ksue/pseuds/Ksue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prequel to A High Class Education. The first meeting between John and Belle. </p><p>Written for timepetals prompts on Tumblr, the prompt was: Games.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Games We Play

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a little one-shot prequel. A huge thank you as always to my beta and best friend Marissa, for helping me with this idea. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Belle sighed. John Smith, his real name, he swore, was a mess. He’d been rambling about nothing and everything since the moment she opened the door to the hotel room, wearing a path in the carpet with his scuffed plimsolls. 

She stood from her place on the small couch and stepped in front of him, putting a stop to his pacing. He looked at her with wide eyes, looking a bit petrified if she was honest. Belle reached out to play with his tie. 

“John, why’d you call me?” she asked. She ran her hands up his chest and across his shoulders, trying to get him used to her touch. He shivered. 

“I, uh…do I need a reason?” he asked. 

“No,” she said, shrugging. “But there usually is one. At least the first time.” 

His mouth opened and closed a few times, like he was trying to work out what to say, and she took the opportunity to study him. He was fit, tall and slim, but still a bit muscular. His brown hair was silky beneath her fingers, the kind that most women would never resist running their fingers through. Acting as though she were attracted to him would not be difficult. 

“I just…needed to,” he finally said. Belle nodded. 

“Why don’t you go take a shower,” she suggested. “And get comfortable. You can put your clothes back on or not, it’s up to you.”

The shower would do him good, give him time and space to relax and get used to the idea that he was in a hotel room with a call girl. She gave him a tiny push towards the en-suite, and waited until she heard the shower running to discard her robe. 

She’d chosen a relatively tame set of lingerie for the first appointment. She usually did, unless the client requested something else, as a way to put the client at ease. First timers were often nervous, though John was more so than most. He didn’t strike her as a virgin, though, so she couldn’t begin to pinpoint why. 

Once she was down to just the royal blue knickers and bra, she laid herself across the bed, propping her head up on her elbow. John appeared a minute later. She’d half expected him to put his full suit back on, but he came out without his jacket or tie, and his feet were bare. It was a start. 

He drew up short when he noticed her on the bed. His mouth fell open as his eyes roamed her body, drinking in the sight of so much skin. She felt her nipples tighten in response. 

Belle held out her hand. He took it as he reached the bed, sinking to sit down on the edge of it. Belle rose to her knees and shuffled up behind him, pressing a kiss to his neck as she reached around to unbutton his shirt. The hotel soap smelled good on his skin. 

She pulled his shirt from his shoulders and then moved to straddle him. John hesitantly lifted his hands to her hips, and Belle smiled, rewarding him with a kiss. His lips were full and pliant beneath hers, and she moaned softly. 

His fingers twitched against her skin as Belle snuck her tongue out to trace the seam of his lips. He opened his mouth to her, allowing her to explore his teeth and the roof of his mouth. He shivered again and Belle rocked her hips against his. 

“You’re not into this, are you?” she asked, leaning back. John sighed.

“I’m sorry, I just…”

He trailed off, looking miserable, and Belle’s mind scrambled for any way to save the appointment. What John needed was to relax, and clearly physical intimacy was not the way to achieve it. 

“Let’s play a game,” she said, thinking of the deck of cards in her purse. She’d always carried a set; ever since she was little and her dad would take her to meetings…she closed her eyes against the memories. Best not to think about it. 

“What kind of game?” John asked, his eyes narrowed warily. Rose smiled and scrambled off his lap, slipping back into her robe but not tying it. Then she rooted through her back for the deck. She could feel John’s eyes on her bum and took comfort in the fact that whatever his hang up was, it clearly didn’t have anything to do with her. 

“Cards!” She tossed the deck at him and he caught it against his chest, staring at her in shock.

“I’m not much of a poker man,” he said slowly. Belle grinned, allowing her tongue to sneak out between her teeth. She tried not to smile that was as Belle, but sometimes she couldn’t help it. 

“Didn’t say anything about poker, did I?” Rose jumped back onto the bed, settling herself comfortable in the middle and motioning for John to hand over the cards. He did, turning to mirror her position, their knees almost touching. 

“What’d you have in mind then?”

“Well, we have some options,” she said. “We could play Go Fish, or War, which is my personal favorite…”

She winced. She was allowing too much Rose to slip through, cracking the careful Belle veneer. Usually it wasn’t an issue to hide Rose away, but something about John made her walls crumble just a bit. 

“Go Fish,” John said. “I don’t know the other one.”

“We’ll save it for next time,” Belle said, quickly dealing out the cards and setting the rest in between them. She arranged her own cards in order of value, grouping the pair of fours together. John simply waited until she gave him a nod.

“Belle, do you have any Kings?” 

“Go fish,” she said, smiling. He plucked a card from the pile between them and added it to his hand. Belle studied her own cards, trying to decide on her strategy. Did she go for the King she knew he had, or did she go for the fours?

“John, do you have any fours?” John handed over a single card, and Belle asked for his Kings. He handed her three. 

He relaxed a bit as they played, his shoulders drooping now that the pressure was off. He smiled a bit more easily, and laughed at her jokes. His smile was gorgeous, and Belle found herself wanting to see it as much as possible. 

“I’m getting a divorce,” John said, after a while of playing. Belle was trouncing him in the game, but she didn’t care. “It’s been…hell.”

“How come?” Belle asked. She didn’t want to push him too hard, but he seemed to need it. 

“I’m not still pinning for Reinette,” he said. “But there’s been a lot of…attention surrounding it. I had to take a leave of absence from my job and the paparazzi won’t leave me alone and it’s just hell.”

“I’m sorry,” Belle said, realizing exactly who he was. The scorned husband on Reinette Poisson, the bookish professor everyone had figured married Reinette for her money. But John didn’t strike her as the fortune hunting kind. 

“Serves me right, I suppose,” John said. “Everyone warned me about her, and I was just too far gone to listen.”

“John,” Belle said, reaching out to cover his hand with hers. “It’s not your fault.”

He looked down at their hands and Belle moved to take hers back, but he caught her, threading his fingers through hers. Belle sucked in a breath. 

“You’re really quite beautiful,” he whispered, tracing his thumb over her palm. Belle held her breath, waiting to see what he would say. “I’m sorry I…”

“It’s okay,” she said, her voice equally soft. “Whatever you need.”

The timer on her phone rang, announcing the end of their session. Belle wanted to chuck it against the wall, but John was already standing up. Belle tied the sash on her robe and waited as he slipped on his jacket and shoved his tie into his pocket. 

“Sorry about wasting your time,” John said at the door. “Must not have been what you were expecting.”

“Honestly, it wasn’t a waste,” she promised, as she pressed her card into his hand. “Call me anytime, I mean it.”

He stared at her a moment, like he was trying to decide if she was telling him the truth. Then he slipped her card into his wallet and took a step towards her, reaching out to cup her cheek. 

His palm was smooth against her skin, and Belle could hear the blood rushing in her ears as he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. She waited, letting him take the lead. John stepped closer still, snaking an arm around her waist until they were pressed together chest to chest, hip to hip. His lips slid across hers until his tongue reached out, begging entrance. Her mouth opened on a gasp and his tongue swept in, tasting her thoroughly. Belle felt herself go weak at the knees and she clutched at his shoulders to stay upright. 

She whimpered when John pulled away, breathing hard.

“Thank you, Belle.”

And then he was gone.


End file.
